


Nurturing in Common

by OmnipresentNuance



Series: The Loud Sharp Chronicles [2]
Category: The Loud House (Cartoon)
Genre: Babysitting, Big Sisters, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Little Brothers, Sibling Love, Slow Burn, nurture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-08
Updated: 2020-06-08
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:33:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24613831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OmnipresentNuance/pseuds/OmnipresentNuance
Summary: Luna babysits Lily while the rest of her family are off and about, and not long into the day, Sam comes on over for an unannounced visit as well. But when Luna then receives an emergency phone call from Lincoln to come get him, she asks Sam to stay behind and keep an eye on Lily. By the end, both Luna and Sam may also learn they have more in common than they originally believed.
Series: The Loud Sharp Chronicles [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1729846
Kudos: 3





	Nurturing in Common

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, yes I'm at it once again...and quite promptly at that.
> 
> So after close to a month and a half since the true official beginning of it, I present to you now the second entry of "The Loud Sharp Chronicles". Not only that, this marks my thirtieth story overall! Can you believe it? Thirty. I've been doing this for approaching a little over six months now (not to mention the months I spent on and off again writing here and there before making my official debut last December) and I have published thirty of these things in that time. Not having anything really resembling a social life even long and truly before the pandemic struck the world is likely the biggest contributing factor that, though my lifelong affinity for writing and having a series that I love writing about are certainly major key points as well.
> 
> The last thing I'll say before we get going is that, yes, the initial premise may indeed sound similar to that of "Pinch Sitter", as both begin with an older Loud sister staying home to watch Lily only for some unforeseen circumstances put said older sister into a bit of a spot of bother. But they both completely diverge from there and for an additional fact, this story idea predates that of "Pinch Sitter" by quite a while, so as I like to put, this one's the original "older Loud sister with Lily and hi-jinks and all that ensuing stuff".
> 
> Okay, let us go onward with this. Enjoy!
> 
> The Loud House is the exclusive property of Nickelodeon and Viacom. The usage of the setting, characters and such is based on nothing more than a pure affinity for everything and is not being used for monetary purposes.

A rare afternoon of relative peace and quiet filled the air within the Loud house. A rare feat, indeed, usually oftentimes as a result of many members of the namesake family behind absent and otherwise out on the town.

That was precisely the case for the tranquility now and it was something Luna Loud, the family rocker, was reveling in. Yes, even she who loved playing it loud up to eleven can stand to have some serenity in her life here and there. It hadn't been too long since her family went off for whatever they had planned in different directions and groups together for the next few hours and she was going to take in every single solitary second of it until they will eventually return home.

In the meantime, she chose to grab herself a root beer from the refrigerator, popped it open, kicked back on the couch in the living room and took a sip, sighing contently.

"Ah...this is the life. I love being with my fam as much as anyone, but man, it's nice to have the crib to myself. When does that ever happen often?" Luna said to herself out loud.

However, a sudden burst of infantile caterwauling emanating from upstairs served as a casual reminder to Luna that she wasn't entirely alone and was the primary reason she was even having the house mostly to herself for a while. Sighing through her nose, she placed her root beer on the coffee table and went off in checking things out.

At the top of the stairs, she turned to her right and entered the bedroom that her two youngest siblings called their own, and it was the very youngest and baby of the family, Lily, who was crying while in her crib after having woken up from a nap.

"Aw, what's the matter, Lilster?" Luna asked, approaching the crib.

She reached out and brought her wailing baby sister into her arms, gently bouncing her, patting her back and shushing her, all while pacing around in the room. Slowly but surely, Lily's cries faded out and it allowed her big sister wonder what's up.

"So what's gotten you down, Lily?" Luna inquired, "Well...you diaper's doesn't have any extra luggage, and I don't think you're hungry, either. Are you just feeling lonesome? Do you wanna have a playmate?"

Free of any sort verbal responses, Lily simply put her hand over Luna's nose and smiled.

"Okay, I'll take that as your way of saying 'yes'. Here, let me see what I can find…"

Putting the infant back in her crib for a moment, Luna searched around for a handful of toys she can use while playing with Lily. She ultimately picked out and gathered up some building blocks, a teething ring, the plastic toy set of keys and a rattle. Looking at what she had, Luna had the intention of wanting to bring both the toys and Lily downstairs, but obviously she couldn't carry both down at the same time nor was she necessarily in the mood to make two separate trips. However, an idea came into fruition and it would serve as a convenient excuse bring something else of Lily's down, too.

Coming back over to the crib, she got Lily's favorite lilac blanket, which caused the latter put up a bit of a fuss over.

"Hey, chill, baby dudette…" Luna told her softly, "You'll get it back in a sec, you'll see."

While Lily continued to carry on, Luna put the blanket on the floor and placed the toys on top. Then, she took the corners of the blanket, grabbed on with her left hand and picked everything up before hauling it over her shoulder. Finally, she grabbed Lily up with her right arm and carried everyone and everything with her downstairs.

Arriving at the living room, Luna first put Lily down on the couch, then spread out the blanket and toys just to the side. Right away, the infant Loud spotted the teething ring and sought after it, bringing it up to her mouth to gnaw on, causing her big sister to smile and chuckle.

Suddenly, no more than a minute after themselves situated here, the doorbell rang and raised the curiosities of both.

"Huh, who could that possibly be?" Luna inquired.

Regardless, she stood up and went over to answer the door, and needless to say, Luna got a big surprise in her companion, bandmate and potentially more than that, Sam Sharp.

"Whoa, Sam! What brings you here?" Luna asked taken aback.

"Hi, Luna! I just happened to be in the neighborhood and thought it'd be nice to make a stop here." Sam answered, "Uh, but this isn't a bad time now, is it?"

Luna shook her head, "Oh, not at all! In fact, I have the abode to myself for quite a while...or well, _almost_ entirely to myself."

Right as if on cue, both of them heard some babbling noises that drew their attention to Lily having crawled on over near the front door.

"Aw, this your baby sister, right?" Sam asked with a big smile on her face.

"Yep, this here is Lily." Luna said, gently patting her youngest sibling's head.

"Well, hi there, Lily!" Sam said to her in a cutesy voice, crouching down lower to her level, "I'm Sam, Luna's...uh, _friend_. Nice to meet you!"

Technically, this wasn't the first time that Sam has seen Lily. Like with pretty much each of the Loud siblings aside for Luna, she first at least vaguely saw each of them during the now infamous 'friend card' debacle she was briefly dragged into when she came over to their house once before. But with that in the past, perhaps Sam could use the time she has here to in order to get to know Lily better like she did with Lincoln days earlier.

"So, you wanna come in?" Luna offered.

"Oh, right, sure." Sam said.

Luna picked up Lily and then stepped aside to allow Sam to come inside before closing the door and leading the latter over to the couch.

"Uh, sorry about the mess here. Just before you came along Lily was putting up a big fuss and I thought bringing her down with her blanket and some toys to keep her amused would do the trick." Luna explained.

"Oh, no big deal, I get it." Sam said.

Nevertheless, as she was still holding her baby sister with one arm, Luna cleared things up by brushing the blanket and toys over to the side, giving herself and Sam some additional space for both of them to sit down.

"There we go. Now we can both take the load off." Luna said with a laugh.

Sam laughed mildly as she and Luna sat down. Not too long after that, it became clear that Lily had more than a small sense of intrigue with this unique blonde-haired girl with a little streak of teal in her bangs that had been welcomed inside the home. To emphasize that, she reached one of her hands out as she babbled sweetly.

"Well, seems the Lilster here appears to have taken a likening to you, Sam." Luna observed while grinning.

"Yeah, perhaps she does…" Sam remarked agreeably, then she started motioning with her hands, "Actually, would you mind if I…?"

"Oh, you want to hold her? Well, sure...I mean, assuming you know what you're doing." Luna said conditionally.

Sam nodded, "I'd say I do. I have plenty of experience with this sort of thing thanks to helping out a lot with Simon when he was a baby."

"Oh, right, of course, your own little bro. I should've know that." Luna admitted, "Well, in that case, I think she'll be in good hands."

Knowing that now, Luna handed off Lily toward the awaiting outstretched arms of Sam, the latter of which couldn't help but act quite giddy.

"Aw, aren't you one of the cutest things I've ever seen!" Sam cooed so blithely.

She gently cradled the youngest Loud in her arms and right away Lily was feeling pretty relaxed. There was something about being held by this new girl that gave a calming sense, an observation quickly picked up on by her big sister.

"Whoa, look it that! Don't know many people aside from some select members of the fam who can have such a chill effect on her, and so quickly!" Luna said, very much impressed with Sam's handling.

"Hey, told you I knew what I'm doing." Sam confidently said.

That might've been somewhat premature, as something caught the little eyes of Lily. One of the weaknesses of any infant: shiny things. More specifically, shiny things attached on an ear. Giggling, she reached up for those.

"Oh, whoa now!" Sam said off guard, "Hey, I don't think you need to handle those, Lily."

She very gently took the little one's hand and tried guiding it away.

"Huh, some much for that chill effect." Sam sheepishly conceded.

"Ah, it's all right. Babies can't help but be wowed by shiny stuff, including ear piercings apparently." Luna said, rubbing the back of her neck, "And in another way, I don't blame her for taking interest in them because she's far from the only one who thinks they look rad on you...and maybe sorta cute, too."

Instantly, a small blush formed on Luna's face and likewise, Sam couldn't hide a similar shade of light red on her own cheeks.

"Oh, uh...where are my manners? Since you're here now, Sam, mind if I got you something to drink?" Luna quickly asked as a shift in subject.

"I, uh...sure, why not?" Sam responded with akin haste, "What do you have?"

"Well, I snagged myself a root beer not too long ago as you can see here on the table. Perhaps that can do?" Luna suggested.

"Yeah, I guess so." Sam answered.

Chuckling kind of nervously, Luna got up and headed over to the kitchen. Meanwhile, as Sam was sort of still taking in the sudden compliment, she was brought back to reality when Lily tried again in reaching up for her ear piercings.

"Oh, no, no, no, Lily…" Sam gently admonished her, laughing anxiously, "Note to self: maybe don't wear these ear piercings if you that you'll around babies...the same ones which apparently this baby's big sister finds cute…"

Some more mild blushing and chuckling resulted from her until she controlled herself when Luna arrived with another root beer at hand.

"All right, here you are. I already took the liberty in popping off the cap for you, too." Luna said.

"Oh...uh, thanks." Sam remarked.

She adjusted having Lily sitting on her lap and then took the root beer bottle from Luna's hand and into her own. After a quick little clink of their respective bottles as offered up by the latter, both took a drink and while one handled things like it was nothing, the other had something of an awakening of the sinuses to put it one way.

"Oh, jeez...dang it!" Sam uttered, her eyes watering up and nose feeling like it got cleared out.

"Whoa, hey, you all right?" Luna asked worriedly.

Sam laughed weakly, "Yeah, I'm good. I'm not as used to having sodas or soft drinks that often, so it can be a bit of a sensory overload."

She placed her root beer on the table and took a second in wiping down one of her eyes, and then much to her surprise, Lily actually did something quite similar by reaching just underneath Sam's other eye by catching a tear that slipped down.

"Oh, well thank you, Lily!" Sam said to her appreciatively.

"Heh, yeah, I've seen her do the same before and…" Luna was trying to say.

However, the sound of her phone's ringtone put a stop to her sentence. She reached out for it and wondered who could be calling her now.

"Who is it?" Sam asked curiously.

"Huh, it's Lincoln." Luna noted, "Wonder why he's giving me a jingle?"

Her own curiosity growing, she naturally answered it.

"Hey there, bro, what's up? Huh...wait, what now? Hold on a sec."

She ever so briefly pulled the phone away from her ear and turned to Sam.

"Hey, you won't mind if I take this with a little more privacy?"

"Oh, no, go right ahead." Sam assured her, "You want me to take Lily with me?"

"Nah, you don't need to split off to anywhere. I meant that I'm gonna swing over to the kitchen." Luna clarified.

She stood up, brought the phone back up close to her and walked off.

"Okay, I'm back again, dude. What? All right, slow down and start again from the top…"

As Luna's call with Lincoln faded away, Sam turned her attention back over to Lily, who had just the most cute smile on her face that made the former titter joyfully.

"I said it already moments ago, but seriously, you really are one of the cutest things I've ever seen." Sam said, poking the infant's nose, "I guess I'm just sucker for babies. After all, assuming you at all understood something else I said before, I have my own little brother named Simon who I did so much for when he was your age and before then. Plus, he was a total cutie then and still very much is today as a matter of fact. He's the most valuable person in my world at the moment…"

She took a pause and seemed primed in continuing speaking, but Sam's attention couldn't be helped but be drawn over to the dining room where she saw Luna pacing around and could actually hear a portion of her phone call.

"So you're absolutely sure no one else can come get you? Not Mom or Dad? Lori? Leni? Pop-Pop? Clyde and his dads? Nobody else? Wait, no, don't apologize, bro! If I really am the only one available to come and bring you home, I'll do it no problem at all! Oh, and don't worry about Lily, because I think I have an idea regarding that. No, I'm not gonna leave her with Mr. Grouse like Dad once did, although that cranky oldster did seem to not mind watching over her during then as time went on. That being said, I don't think he's at his home at the moment. But really, I like to think I've got this sitch under control. So hang tight and I'll be right on over, okay?"

At the end of that, Luna hung up and returned over to Sam while having something of a worried expression on her face.

"Is everything all right, Luna?" Sam asked.

Luna let out a sigh, "Well...not entirely. Apparently my bro got into some kind of accident and…"

Sam gasped, not even letting her finish, "What?! Is he okay?"

"Oh, don't fret too much, Sam! Maybe 'accident' wasn't the right choice of word. I wasn't trying to make it sound like he got hit by a car or anything super gnarly like that. He just fell hard and hurt his ankle a good deal to the point that he can't really walk on it." Luna cleared things up.

"Oh...okay then. I mean, that still sounds bad, but...at least it's not something much worse." Sam said relieved, "So with that in mind, and I'll admit to sort of listening in unintentionally to part of your call with him, but you're gonna go get him, right?"

Luna nodded, but her facial expression was also a little uneasy, "Yeah, I am. He claims I'm the only one who can get him at this time. I must admit I'm not sure if that's totally true or not, which I wouldn't want to think that is something Linc could ever fib about, but I'm not gonna turn down being there for him whenever he needs me either way. But with all that in mind, this is where I'm gonna have to ask you to do a huge favor for me, Sam, even if I feel guilty for doing so...which is to say can you stick by here and keep a watch over Lily until I come back home with him?"

"Sure, absolutely." Sam said without hesitation.

"Whoa, really? Just like that? No issues with it at all?" Luna questioned her, totally taken of guard by such promptness, "I thought you'd might take issue just even a tiny bit with thinking that I'm putting you in a major jam here."

"Hey, it's no trouble. If I have to do this in order for you to get Lincoln, I'll gladly comply with that." Sam affirmed with a smile, "Plus, I actually like the idea of spending a little quality time with Lily anyway, so it can work out in that sense, too. Wouldn't you like that, Lily?"

While Sam tickled the youngest Loud's little belly, Luna smiled both at adorableness of the scene, but also in relief. The generosity and willingness in being able to handle this kind of situation was heartening, but also not entirely unsurprising. It was those same traits of Sam's that only days earlier made her come across Lincoln and be by his side while she set up the opportunity for him and Luna to mend things up after Luna's complete ill-tempered raging meltdown against her brother. It was one moment of a singular afternoon Luna will never forget and now learning Sam was all too willing do something again to help out made her feel at ease.

"Oh, thank you, Sam! This means a lot to me." Luna said gratefully, "All right, so if that's settled, I'll be making a dash over to my bro right about now. I shouldn't be gone too long and I doubt she'll be much trouble, but just in case you need to know, Lily's room is the first door to the right upstairs. Also, I don't think you'll need to worry yourself none about anyone in my family coming home unexpectedly. They all only left around twenty minutes ago and it'll be a few hours before everyone returns."

"Well, all right, but even if somebody does come home, I won't mind explaining the situation myself." Sam mentioned.

"I guess, but my bigger worry would be if anyone knew that left Lily behind even if it's with someone I trust like you, My 'rents and probably my two older sister Lori and Leni as well might come down on me _real_ hard should they learn that. But the hope is that it'll never come to that and I'll be back home with Lincoln before then." Luna explained, nervously chuckling.

No matter what, she opened the front door and was about to head off, but turned back over one more time.

"So to recap, I shouldn't be too long and again, thanks for doing this, Sam."

And with that, Luna closed the door behind her as she set off to get her little brother in his time in need. Meanwhile, it was now just the pair of blonde girls, one Sharp and one very little Loud, who were on their own for the time being.

"So...how shall we spent this time together while we wait on your big sister hopefully coming back with your brother quickly enough, Lily?" Sam inquired.

A cursory glance to her right provided at least a handful of ideas for that very question.

"Hmm...what do we have here?"

She put Lily down on the floor for a second and observed the collection of toys and the blanket on the opposite end of the couch from where she was sitting. She gathered them all up and then scooted off the couch until she was also on the floor.

Right as Sam put the blanket and toys between herself and Lily, the first thing that the baby did was a repeat of what she did a few minutes earlier when Luna was with her by going straight for the teething ring again. Sam let her do that much to the former's amusement for a little bit, then as for some variety, she got the toy key set and shook them right in Lily's face. She reached out for them, but Sam then playfully pulled them up little by little, thus giving the littlest Loud a little challenge. Lily was more than up for it as she giggled while standing up onto her feet and still reached for the keys some more until she snatched them right from Sam's hands, sitting back down and gnawing on them.

The rattle was put into use next in this little play session, with Sam starting off by shaking a few times herself to draw Lily's attention before it was handed off to the latter. The youngest Loud would then shake the rattle almost in a rhythmic fashion, encouraging Sam to join in by clapping along. Finally, the blocks came into play where Sam and Lily took turns placing one on top of another to form a tower until Lily chose to knock them down and laugh in the ensuing aftermath.

"Heh...Simon was the same way back when. He _loved_ knocking down blocks...and a few other things, too." Sam said with her own spate of laughter.

However, the fun times weren't going to last too much longer when Lily starting fussing around.

"Hey, what's wrong, Lily?"

Ask a question she did and Sam quickly got an answer. She saw Lily pointing at her diaper and upon picking up the infant, a subtle wet sloshing sound was heard.

"Uh oh, did someone make a little tinkle? Well...I'm sure we can take care of that." Sam expressed with a mix of sweetness and a smidgen of indecision.

That slight feeling of hesitation wasn't going to be made any better when rather suddenly another less than needed surprise dropped in with a grotty stench and downward sagging of Lily's diaper.

"Poo-poo." Lily babbled self-aware.

Sam chuckled uneasily, "Yeah, no kidding. Guess we _really_ gotta take care of this now, right?"

Groaning softly while trying to maintain a half grin, Sam held Lily at an arms length and took her upstairs. Remembering what Luna said before leaving, she carefully rushed over to her right and opened up the first door she came to, only to find out it was the wrong room judging by all the assorted comic book related, video gaming and similar items all around.

"Whoops...guess this must be Lincoln's room."

Sam shut the door, then noticed the one to her immediate right.

"Oh, maybe it's _this_ one."

She was proven correct as the presence of a crib, a changing table and other assorted baby things showed this was indeed Lily's room. She didn't waste much more time in gently laying the infant Loud on the table.

"All right...haven't really done this in a very long time, but hey, the knowledge should still be there, right?" Sam told herself.

Taking a deep breath, she undid Lily's diaper and admittedly was perhaps just more than a bit reeled back by the...contents within to put it lightly.

"Whoa...ugh, yeah...I don't think I can really recall any time Simon was this...uh, _thorough_...whenever he did this during his diaper days."

Choosing to hold her breath when doing this, Sam didn't take any chances in pulling away the very much used diaper off from Lily and hastily tossing it in the diaper pail. Conveniently enough, an open pack of fresh diapers and some wipes where close by, so Sam hurried in taking some wipes and took care of the foul substances, threw those away along with the diaper, but then she more gently applied a new diaper onto Lily to finish off the job.

"Whew...okay now, there we go! Sure, that's wasn't the most enjoyable of experiences, but when is diaper changing ever supposed to be like that? Besides, at least I _did_ remember how to do this after all these years." Sam said, feeling pretty proud of herself, "Now, wait just a few seconds, Lily."

For her next task, Sam needed to give her hands a good washing, but finding the appropriate place for such took some seconds of time.

"Okay, where's the bathroom supposed to be?"

With five other doors leading to rooms that she hasn't checked out yet, Sam deduced that the one on the opposing end from where Lincoln's room stood could be the one. Her instinctive guess was correct and she took a minute to wash her hands plenty thoroughly. Once she was finished and dried them off, she went right back over to Lily.

"So, with all that done and out of the way, what shall we do next?" Sam wondered.

Another question asked and soon another answer came about. This time, the sound of Lily's gurgling tummy and motioning pointing to her mouth gave Sam the clearest of signals what was needed,

"I take it you're hungry, Lily? Well, I think something can be arranged for that. After all, if I was able to put my long dormant diaper changing skills into god use, may as well have an excuse to call upon my similarly dormant abilities in feeding a little one such as yourself."

Carrying the baby with her back downstairs, Sam rounded to her left and entered the kitchen. She immediately noticed the high chair within and sat Lily down in it.

"Okay, give me a moment, Lily, and let me see what I can find." Sam told her.

The most obvious locale that likely housed infant nourishment was the refrigerator, so Sam opened it up and only a couple seconds worth of searching did she catching the sight of some jars of baby food, but adjacent to those was a bowl with a label that read "homemade peach puree for Lily".

"Huh, maybe this will do the trick."

Sam took that bowl out and just as she turned around with it at hand, Lily almost instantly let out a happy, high pitched squeal.

"Oh, you must know what this is, huh?" Sam said while giggling.

She pulled open one of the drawers to get a spoon before bringing everything over to the continually ecstatic baby. Putting the bowl of peach puree on the nearby table, Sam used the spoon to scoop up a portion of the puree and carefully began pushing it toward Lily.

"Okay, Lily, open up for the…"

Whether it be the classic "airplane landing in the hanger" or the time honored "train going through the tunnel" routines that Sam was aiming for, neither came about when Lily instead snatched up the spoon, then she chomped down on, chewed up and swallowed the puree promptly.

"Wow, you really do love this stuff, don't you?" Sam said along with a chuckle, "And you seem to be something of a big eater, too. I remember Simon being pretty much the same at your age, but I don't recall him ever snatching spoons from whomever was feeding him. Guess he was more patient then, which is funny because he can be sort of hyper and energetic today."

In any event, Sam very gently got the spoon back from Lily and assisted in giving her four more spoonfuls of puree. Then just for the heck of it, since she assumed despite the label that designated this as Lily's that the actual puree could be made for anyone, Sam's curiosity lead her to get another spoon and tried some of the stuff out for herself. From making contact with her taste buds all the way until it went down her throat, she grinned in delight.

"Wow, this is some high quality stuff! No wonder you like this, Lily!"

She had a couple more spoonfuls of the puree herself, but felt like she needed to stop before she got too greedy. After having her own fill, Sam put both of the spoons in the skin and put the bowl back in the fridge. But she had finished that, her attention returned back over to Lily when she started wailing.

"What's wrong, Lily?" Sam asked worriedly.

As she again approached the now crying infant, she saw that a pair of Lily's fingers on her right hand were a tiny bit red and swollen.

"Oh no, did you accidentally bite your fingers?"

The one theory Sam had in mind as to how this happened is that she guessed Lily might've had some puree on her hand and stuck it into her mouth, only to perhaps then unwittingly bit down on two of her fingers in the process.

"Aw, it's okay, Lily. Here, let me make them feel better…" Sam said comfortingly.

She took the hand of Lily's and turned it facing forward so she could then give each finger a little kiss.

"There, all better?" Sam asked ever so sweetly.

Slowly, Lily's cries dissipated and though her face showed she was still in pain, at least the fact that Sam put her own small effort to try in healing those fingers was something that her very, very early and developing mind did appreciate.

Noting there was some puree on the face of Lily, Sam would next get a couple sheets of paper towels and gently wiped it off. After tossing the paper towels in the trash, she brought Lily out of the high chair and carried her over back the living room.

"Ah, I don't know about you, but I think all I really want to do now is just take a seat and relax." Sam expressed with a minor spent sigh.

She sat down on the couch and decided to place Lily just right to her side this time around. As an addition, Sam also reached down and got the blanket, which the baby Loud eagerly hugged and snuggled around with.

In the meantime, Sam checked up on her phone and noticed a rather surprising detail.

"Wow, it hasn't even been ten minutes since Luna left and we've already done quite a bit, huh, Lily?"

She checked a couple other things and then she put her phone away, sat back and sighed while she relaxed. She did take another sip of her root beer as well, and though she did get another minor hit of her sinuses, she also noticed the more tepid taste as a result of it setting there for a little bit. Because of that, she chose to take both it and Luna's and went back to the kitchen ever so briefly to put them away in the fridge.

Right as Sam was coming on back, she heard a sudden knocking on the door.

"Hey, mind opening up? Got some pretty precious cargo that needs offloading."

Knowing that was Luna, she went right over and opened up the door.

When she did, Sam saw Luna standing with Lincoln in her arms and him having his own arms around his older sister's neck for added support.

"Hey, thanks, Sam." Luna said.

"No problem, Luna. Glad you made it back soon…" Sam said before looking at the white-haired boy, "And nice to see you again, Lincoln."

"Yeah, you too, Sam...although I wish it was in better circumstances." Lincoln remarked, laughing weakly.

After a small laugh of her own, Sam stepped aside and allowed Luna come inside before closing the door.

"Say, you didn't carry him all the way back home like that, did you?" Sam asked.

Luna shook her head, "Nah, dude. When I first got to him, I had him hitch a ride on my back, then we caught a bus and finally once we arrived at a stop close to home, that's when I chose to carry him."

"Ah, all right then." Sam simply said, "Hey, I'm guessing you might want to lay him down on the couch perhaps?"

"Yeah, that'd be good." Luna replied.

"Okay, well, I should get Lily out of the way first to make a little more room."

With that, Sam went and again brought Lily into her arms, allowing Luna to carry Lincoln over and place him along the right end of the couch.

"Probably for the best we get your shoes off, bro." Luna suggested.

She undid the laces and took the right shoe off with ease, but she more carefully removed the other one, given it was the left ankle of Lincoln's that sustained the injury in this instance. He winced a little as the shoe was taken off, then it and the other were put down on the floor.

"Okay, be right back and I'll nab you a pillow to rest both your feet on."

In a flash, Luna bolted up the stairs and just as quickly returned with such a pillow. She gently raised Lincoln's feet up, placed the pillow and put his feet down again over it.

"You know, I think one of the pillows on the couch here might've done the job, Luna." Lincoln said.

"Yeah, but I think this one will work better, plus it's much more comfy, too." Luna asserted, "Now, be right back again."

Without exactly explaining whatever else she was getting, Luna made a path for the kitchen. At the same time, Sam took a seat on the couch again with Lily near Lincoln.

"So you were the one who stuck by with Lily, huh?" Lincoln wondered.

Sam nodded, "Yeah, I was. Pretty much an unexpected task figuratively put on my lap I'll admit, but I took it in stride for Luna's sake and yours for that matter I might add."

Before much in the way of a conversation could really get rolling, Luna arrived back, but she looked to be far in the best of moods.

"Uh, something wrong, Luna?" Lincoln asked.

"Urgh...of course we're completely out…" Luna grumbled irksomely.

"What you do mean by that? What are you out of?" Sam followed up with.

"Well, I hoped to find some aspirin to help Linc out, but we're fresh out of the stuff. Now I'm thinking I might need to get some more." Luna answered.

"Wait, really? I don't think you need to do that, Luna. Besides, I'm not sure my ankle is that bad for it to necessitate me taking something like aspirin." Lincoln said.

"Maybe, maybe not, dude, but I'm kinda already in the mood to grab some more not just for you, but for anyone else in our fam who might need it. You never know if Lori might have a splitting headache, Lynn needing something to dull the pain of sports related injury, Lana in case she like hurts her thumb while working on a project of some kind or if Lisa hurts her...well, everything should an experiment of hers blow up on her. So yeah, I think I have my reasons for this." Luna explained.

Before going out once more, she went upstairs for a few seconds and came back down to show she had a sum of money in her hand, presumably having gotten it somewhere within her room. Then once again, she headed over to the front door and looked back over.

"So...Sam, I hate put you on the spot again, but can you stick around for just a little bit longer?" Luna requested, "I'm just gonna swing on by Flip's and hope he has what I'm looking for, so hopefully it'll likely take less time than before."

"Sure, I can do that, no worries." Sam assured.

Luna sighed in relief, "Oh, thanks again, Sam. I'll be back in a jiff."

And for the second time today, she left the house on another errand based around something regarding her little brother.

"Heh...again, I'm not sure she really needs to do that, but once her mind is set on something it can be a little challenging to tell her otherwise." Lincoln said with an unsure laugh.

"Yeah, I can see your point, yet I could argue that it shows even with something small like that, it comes off as her showing how much she cares for you and your family if she'll put the effort into doing that." Sam theorized.

Lincoln grinned, "Yeah, I guess. That latter part is absolutely true. She really does care about everyone in our family...myself, Lily, our parents, the rest of our sisters...and if you don't mind me saying this since you're here, Sam...I think she really cares about you, too."

Instead of saying anything, Sam only let a smile and a modest blush form on her face. She looked away in the distance for a moment to let those latter words really sink in, only for Lily babbling and wriggling around brought her back to reality as the littlest of the Louds set her sights in Lincoln's direction.

"Looks like someone wants to be with her big brother." Sam observed.

Rather than handing her off to him, Sam instead chose to simply let Lily crawl over to Lincoln. She went right up to her brother and laid across his torso, but in the process of getting there also inadvertently crawled on top of that bad ankle of his. He groaned painfully and right away his baby sister got the sense she might've done something wrong.

"Inky?" Lily uttered.

"Oh...it's okay, Lily. That ankle is still a little tender, though…" Lincoln assured her, forcing a smile as he fought through the pain.

"You know, since my hands are freed up with you handling Lily now, maybe I can take a look at that ankle myself?" Sam offered up.

"Um...sure, if you'd like to." Lincoln said.

Sam scooted closer to Lincoln and pulled down the sock covering the ankle of his that was injured and she saw that it did look a bit red and swollen up.

"Well, it doesn't look too bad, but I'm guessing looks can be deceiving and that it does hurt enough, right?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, it does…" Lincoln answered, wincing somewhat, "Actually, it's throbbing some as we speak."

"Oh, it does? Well, I wish there's something I could do about it." Sam said sympathetically.

"Actually, maybe there is. I was about to ask Luna this before she felt the need to head on out again, but I'd think an ice pack could work here. We keep some in the freezer whenever any of us needs one, so perhaps you can get one for me if it isn't too much trouble." Lincoln requested.

Sam smiled, "Sure, I can do that. Wait right there."

She got up and went to the kitchen in order to retrieve that for him. During that time, Lincoln looked back over to Lily who had been sitting on him since his brief talk with Sam. Then inexplicably, Lily crawled away from him and again accidentally brushed alongside his injured ankle, causing him to let out another pained groan.

Again, Lily seemed to realize her mistake and hearing his suffering made tears bubble up in her eyes.

"All right, here's…"

As Sam was speaking right as she returning with an ice pack, she saw both Lincoln grimacing in pain and Lily in the beginning stages of crying.

"Hey, what happened?" Sam wondered with some concern.

"Oh...Lily again crawled on my ankle by accident. Now it's really beginning to smart…" Lincoln replied following him hissing painfully.

Just after he said that, Lily transitioned into full on wailing over what she did. Hastily giving the ice pack to Lincoln, Sam sat back down and brought the bawling baby into her arms.

"Aw, shh...don't cry, Lily. I'm sure you didn't mean to hurt him." Sam said softly and soothingly.

Besides calming words, Sam thought another way of pacifying Lily was to cradle her very much like she did when Sam first held Lily after Luna allowed it to happen earlier. Adjusting her grip on Lily, Sam also rocked her back and forth very gently in addition to also humming a soft tune. In due time, Lily stopped crying and instead let out some light joyful babbles.

"Wow, nicely done, Sam." Lincoln said impressively, "You must have a knack for this sort of thing if you got her to calm down that fast."

"Thanks, Lincoln. Luna did say to me early on that I had what she called a 'chill effect' when I first got to hold Lily. That, and doing a lot with my own brother Simon when he was a baby probably helped, too." Sam said, combining bashfulness and pride.

With her doing better now, Sam placed Lily back on her lap while at the same time, Lincoln turned his ankle over to with the left side of it facing upward, given it was the portion which was hurting more, and laid the ice pack over it. Also, just for the sake of it, he took off both of his socks and put them to the side right on top of his shoes on the floor.

"So, ankle aside, how's my new friend and something of an honorary little brother figure doing?" Sam asked him while smiling.

"Uh, fine, I suppose." Lincoln responded kind of awkwardly, "But I must say, while I can certainly get the friend portion of that since I do also view you the same, I'm not so sure about the 'honorary little brother' end of that. Don't think we've spent enough time together yet for such a designation to stick yet."

Sam shrugged, "Eh, I can understand that, but at the same time, it's like what I said to both you and Luna just a few days ago that I can't help but start to feel real attached to someone who is close to her."

Lincoln chuckled, "Yeah, I'll admit to that. You already became very attached to me enough that you even kissed me on the cheek that day, which certainly took me off guard."

"Hey, I wouldn't have done that unless I thought you earned it. You _did_ after all refer to me as being cool and nice during then, so you know…" Sam said, winking in his direction and adding a chuckle in the end.

As Lincoln chuckled a little more embarrassed, he couldn't help but also notice that Lily appeared to be starting to doze off in Sam's lap.

"Well, someone's looking like she's getting sleepy." Lincoln noted.

"Seems like it to me." Sam said more quietly, "Think it might be a good idea to have her put in her crib?"

Lincoln nodded, "I'd say so."

Going along with his recommendation, Sam carefully carried the gradually drowsier infant up with her, also grabbing the blanket as well. She headed upstairs, went inside Lily's room and ever so gently laid down the baby Loud in the crib, nestling her head on the pillow and then finally putting the blanket over her. The coziness Lily found herself in made her ultimately yawn.

"All right, well, sweet dreams, Lily." Sam whispered sweetly, "And if this ends up being the last time I see you before I eventually leave, then I want to say that I had a wonderful day with you. Even if our time together was relatively short, we certainly packed a good amount into it anyway. Also, I should thank you for allowing me in proving to myself that I still have it when it comes to handling babies."

She laughed very softly, then as Lily's eyes were drooping, she leaned down and kissed the little one's forehead.

"I hope to see you again soon."

And so as quietly as she brought Lily up here, Sam started silently taking her leave, glancing briefly to see the infant asleep and smiling over such an adorable sight. She then finally left the room and inch by inch shut the door behind her.

Sighing contently in the aftermath, Sam went back downstairs and rejoined with Lincoln on the couch.

"She's all taken care of." Sam said proudly to him.

"That's good to hear." Lincoln expressed equally glad.

They both remained together in relative silence for another minute or two, then eventually they chose to engage in more dialogue to pass the time away until Luna comes back.

"So...not sure why I haven't asked this yet, but what exactly happened that ended up causing your ankle to get hurt in the first place, Lincoln?" Sam asked.

"Oh, uh...well, you see, I was at a park taking part in some kite flying since I knew today had a most agreeable breeze swirling about." Lincoln started out with, "So I stood on the top of a hill, waiting for a good gust to flow by, and when one came about, off I went and everything seemed like it was going fine...for only about a few seconds. Before I knew it, I tripped and went tumbling down the hill with my kite flying right into a tree. Naturally, or foolishly given what's to come, I tried to retrieve it from there, but as I inferred, it didn't end well for me. I just about got it until I slipped off a branch and both it and me came crashing on down, with my ankle taking the worst of the impact as I landed pretty awkwardly on it."

"Ooh...that must've been rough. Sorry to hear about that." Sam said with empathy, "Might as well also ask whatever happened to that kite of yours, anyway? Didn't see something like that when Luna brought you back home."

"Eh, it was a complete and total loss. Between when it crashed into the tree and coming down with me, it was torn to shreds and well beyond repair, so I told Luna to toss it in the trash before she could take me home." Lincoln explained.

"Oh...okay. I will also say this much that you didn't strike me as some who'd fly kites. From what Luna would speak of you before we met, she said you were mostly a comic book reader and a video gamer." Sam said.

"Yeah, both of those are very much true, but even I know can't keep myself cooped up doing only indoor activities all the time. I can definitely understand the importance of getting fresh air into your system every now and again, too." Lincoln stated.

Sam smiled, "I can sort of relate to that, too. I've told my own brother Simon that a few times and how he can't just stick to video games every time. Speaking of which, that's one thing I now know you two have in common as well."

"Do we now? Say, you've mentioned him both now and briefly when we really started getting to know each other a few days ago, but aside from you saying that him and I have video games in common now, I've never really heard much else about Simon. Mind tell me more?"

"Sure, but I think I can do you one better. I can show you what he looks like through some recent pictures I've taken from my phone. Here, take a look…"

Sam reached down and took her phone out, then she moved closer over to Lincoln to give him a good look at those pictures she was talking about. They were all taken only a couple days ago and largely consisted of selfies taken perhaps in the backyard of her home with Simon by her side, both of them either making happy or silly faces.

The first thing Lincoln noticed upon now knowing what Simon looked like was the substantial size difference when next to Sam. In Lincoln's own case for comparison, he was a few inches shorter than Luna, with the top of his head right about meeting the bottom of her chin. Here with Simon, he didn't appear that much taller than Sam's waist. Another thing that stuck out was how both of them had similarities with their hair, both in that they were blondes and had strikingly alike bangs. That stood in stark contrast with Lincoln's own white hair and how it made him stand out from among all of his own sisters.

Physical differences and similarities aside, though, there was something about seeing these pictures of the Sharp siblings together that he thought came through loud and clear.

"You know, just from what I can tell from these, I get the sense that you and him are very close." Lincoln said.

"Oh, that's the truth and then some." Sam proudly said, "I guess when you're the only two siblings in the family that it's only natural you'll develop a close bond with each other. But no matter what the case is, I love him so much and he's my world to me."

"Heh, that's nice to hear. Sounds a lot like how Luna, or really most anyone in my family, likes to see me as, too." Lincoln noted.

Sam chucked as she put her phone, which conveniently timed with the front door opening up signaling Luna's return with some items at hand.

"Hey there, dudes! Told ya it wouldn't take me too long!" Luna happily remarked.

She shut the door and showed that in one hand she had a plastic bag and the other was the instantly recognizable Flippee, the signature beverage of Flip's Food & Fuel.

"Well, got the aspirin. Really surprised that Flip does sell that sort of thing, but for a cheap dude like he is, guess even he can throw a few surprises. Hey, speaking of surprises, since I also couldn't help myself, bro…"

Luna walked over to Lincoln's side and put the Flippee on the coffee table to indicate that it was for him. In addition, she also brought out a pair of candy bars and a bag of chips from the bag and put them right next to the Flippee.

"Oh, thanks, Luna. I'd ask why, but that might make me come off as ungrateful, so I'll just be appreciative of the efforts." Lincoln said.

"Hey, nothing's too good for my little bro…" Luna said, turning over to Sam next, "Uh, I didn't get anything for you, Sam, which I wasn't really planning to do. Sorry."

"Ah, don't worry, Luna. I wasn't expecting anything on my end, so it's all good." Sam assured her.

Luna smiled a little before she went off to put the aspirin away. But when she then returned, she noticed something amiss.

"Hey, where did our root beers disappear to?"

"Oh, I put them both back in the fridge since they'd been out for long enough to start getting lukewarm. I'll bring them back out if you like." Sam mentioned.

Before Luna could say anything on her end, Sam went over to the retrieve those root beers. By the time she came back, she was having a slight problem.

"Uh...I can't exactly remember which one is yours and which is mine." Sam admitted with an awkward laugh.

"Hmm...I do believe that would be mine." Luna said, pointing to the one in Sam's right hand, "That one has a lesser amount in it, since I started having a gulp before you arrived."

With that, she took it into her hand and sat down down next to Lincoln, while Sam also did the same near Luna. Both then took a drink, with Sam obviously taking a smaller one as she still tried to work through the sensitivity of her sinuses, and at the same time, Lincoln began working over his own snacks and drink that Luna got him.

"Might I ask were the Lilster went off to?" Luna asked.

"I put her away in her crib for a nap after she started getting sleepy." Sam replied, "It was such a cute sight."

"Aw, well thanks for doing that, Sam." Luna said admirably, "So besides that, anything else happen during the time I split again for a bit?"

"Well, Sam and I talked about what caused my ankle injury for bit. Heck, she got me an ice pack as you can see...or I requested her to get one for me, but same result either way." Lincoln responded, pointing to that very ice pack.

"An ice pack?" Luna questioned, then she slapped her forehead, "Duh, of course! How come I didn't think of that myself?"

"Whoa, I wasn't implying anything bad on your end, Luna! I was only mentioning that since you only asked what went on while you were away. Besides, I know in any other case you would've for certain done that for me." Lincoln said.

Luna turned over to her brother and smiled slightly, then also feeling a hand on her back as she turned to her left.

"On a more positive note, I also got show him some pictures of me and Simon together since he asked about my little brother." Sam brought up.

"Oh, like what kind of pics?" Luna inquired.

Sam promptly got her phone out again and showed off the same collection of pictures she already gave Lincoln a look at.

"Aw, look at you two!" Luna said through some laughter, "Kinda reminds me of the fun times I have with certain little dude of my own."

Some more laughter came from Luna, as did from Sam and Lincoln on top of that, and then since Simon was brought up again, a pretty obvious question had come up next.

"Hey, are we ever gonna meet Simon anytime soon?" Lincoln asked.

"Yeah, I've been wondering that myself. We've been hanging together for a decent little while now before we let Lincoln in, Sam, but somehow I have never laid eyes on your little bro in person myself yet." Luna added.

"I know, right?" Sam acknowledged that puzzling fact, "I guess there's just never really been the proper time for introductions for whatever reason. But yeah, I think it's about time he gets to meet you both. It's only just a matter of figuring out when…"

For a moment, Sam pondered over when would be such an apt time for her two friends, or technically one friend and the other hoping to be something much more, in meeting her brother.

And then, an idea came to mind.

"Hey, how about this?" Lincoln spoke up, "There's a carnival in town for the week. Maybe we can all go together and you can bring Simon along, too, Sam. Perhaps this Saturday, since that'll be the last day it'll be in town."

"Hey, nice thinking, bro! I can be down with that!" Luna excitedly endorsed, turning over to Sam, "Does that sound like something you can go for?"

"Uh...yeah, I think so." Sam said, sounding and looking slightly uneasy, "But if that's the plan, can Friday work instead? I have something of a busy Saturday myself."

"Sure, why not? That good with you, Linc?" Luna asked to her brother.

Lincoln nodded, "Yeah, Friday's good, too. Plus, it'd make for a nice end to the school week for us to all hang out together. So with that, I'm in favor."

"I am, too." Luna agreed.

"Well...I guess that makes it official on my end as well." Sam said to round things out.

Right as they made their plans official, Sam heard a notification coming from her phone. She checked it out and got a little worried look on her face.

"Oh boy…"

"Uh, what's up?" Luna asked.

"Well...looks like your little brother isn't the only one whose had something of an incident of sorts." Sam responded.

"Wait, what? Is he okay?" Lincoln asked concernedly.

"Oh, don't worry, it's nothing really serious and it's not like he's out somewhere in town. He's at our house and is just wanting me to come over and help out. Not that it's something our parents can't handle themselves, but I can never turn down any time to be by his side." Sam explained, "With that in mind, guess that's my cue to be heading off now."

Knowing this bit of information, she stood up and almost made it to the front door, but paused and looked back.

"You know, if it's okay with you guys and though I hate to disturb her while she's asleep, but would you mind if I maybe said goodbye to Lily first?"

"Hey, if that's what you wanna do, go for it." Luna said.

Smiling, Sam went up the stairs and ever so carefully opened up the door. Even with the carefulness involved, the door let out a sudden creak, which was enough for Lily to start stirring awake. However, she was actually delighted to see who'd came back up to check on her one last time.

"Hi, Lily…" Sam quietly said, "So sorry to wake you, but I'm just about to leave and I wanted to see you one last time before I do."

She stepped inside the room and approached the crib while Lily made some sleepy, though happy babbling noises.

"Again, I had a great time with you and I hope we'll see each other again very soon, okay? Now, you go back to enjoying your nap, all right?"

Like before, Sam kissed Lily's forehead and also gently rubbed her head.

"Good bye, Lily."

With that last adieu, she began leaving again silently.

Then, just as she almost closed the door, Sam thought she heard something incredible coming out of Lily's mouth as she was dozing off.

"Suh-am…"

Sam gasped and put her hand over her chest.

"Did she…?"

It sounded almost too good to be true, but if there was even a chance her ears weren't deceiving her…

Either way, she closed the door and returned downstairs.

"Okay, I should be on my way now." Sam said.

"Oh, all right, cool." Luna said, "Say, mind if I had another quick chat with you out front before you do?"

"Uh, yeah, I can go for that." Sam agreed, then she looked over to the boy laid out on the couch, "Bye, Lincoln. I'll see you and Luna this Friday with Simon as well, okay?"

"Sure thing. Bye, Sam." Lincoln said back while waving.

As she also waived back, Sam stepped out the front door while Luna followed, the latter then closing it.

"All right, so what's up?" Sam asked.

"Well, first off…" Luna began before going up and hugging Sam, "I wanna say thanks so much for everything, Sam, especially at first for being with Lily while I went off to get my bro."

Sam smiled and returned the hug, "It's was all my pleasure, Luna. I had a great time with her."

The two stayed in their hug for a moment before eventually parting.

"And speaking of Lily, I could be very well mistaken, but right after I said good bye to her, I could've sworn I heard her trying to say my name."

"Whoa…really? That's pretty sweet! I'm not sure of really anyone else outside of the fam she's ever really tried doing that before. I'd consider you lucky in that sense." Luna noted.

"Maybe...and hey, speaking of thanks, I actually want to extend something thanks to you, Luna." Sam said.

"Huh? What for?" Luna asked confused.

"For once again proving me wrong with regards to Lincoln after seeing the lengths you went for him today." Sam responded with a smile, though a frown did come a second later, "To think I had the gall to ever accuse you of not caring or loving him as much as you actually do like I said days ago when I went off on you after, well, you know..."

Luna patted Sam on her shoulder, "Oh, it's all good, Sam. But since you brought that unfortunate day up, I'm glad you actually did knock some sense into me then. Sure, I probably would've realized what a bonehead I was to Lincoln either on my own or having someone in my family drill that into me and I would've eventually made things right with him. But I'm so glad it was you who laid it out straight with me."

"Well...you're welcome, I guess…" Sam said with an awkward laugh, "But again, it was so sweet to see you do everything for him and it warms my heart to know how much you love him."

"Ain't that the truth." Luna acknowledged as she glanced over to the window to see him, "He really is the single most important boy in my life."

She took a few seconds to admire her little bro from where she stood. But then, a clearing of the throat from Sam brought her attention back to the latter.

"Huh? Something up?" Luna asked her.

"Oh, well...since you just said Lincoln is the most important boy in your life...and I'm not totally expecting you to give me straight answer to this or anything, but...mind if I ask if there could also be a very important girl in your life, too?" Sam inquired as she began to blush.

Likewise, Luna also was blushing, as she knew exactly where Sam was going with this.

"Well, since you asked and assuming you're not talking about someone in my fam...I think I can let you in on a little somethin' somethin'….

She approached Sam closer and put both hands on her shoulders.

"This girl is someone we both know pretty well. She has similar fine tastes in music, threads and the like. She's very sweet, kind and all around a rad person. Because of that and more, she's rising up in my heart like a hit rock song going up the charts and someday, if things go right...well, the sky's the limit."

Next, she brought Sam into another hug.

"Also, I've come to realize something else. I recall a time when this girl and I almost ended things because we were under this impression we didn't have anything in common. But today has totally changed that. Turns out that girl and I do have a couple of very important things in common, such as how we both were able to take care of a baby named after a kind of flower very wll. Also, this girl and I share the fact we both have little brothers who we care for deeply, who we love with every inch of our hearts and will do absolutely anything for."

Finally, Luna let go and looked Sam right in her eyes.

"So, uh...yeah...that's all I'll say about that for now."

"Well...I guess I can't really add much else other than...I hope that same girl will do her best with you, too." Sam said softly, complete with a self-aware wink.

"Same here…." Luna agreed.

With those little more than subtle words of hopefulness shared between them, Sam finally turned around and began walking away.

"See ya, Sam! This Friday, right?" Luna reminded her.

Sam looked back, "This Friday with both Lincoln and Simon. See you then."

Finally, Luna headed back inside and sighed deeply with an accompanying smile. Safe to say things were really looking up for her.

Her moment of thought came to an end, though, as she saw Lincoln sort of shifting around in discomfort.

"Hey, is there something wrong, bro?" Luna asked him.

Lincoln sighed, "Well, I'm trying to get more comfortable because my back is now suddenly getting kind of sore now, too."

"Is it now? Aw, sorry to hear that." Luna lamented, but she immediately had an idea, "Wait, I know might be able to help…"

She went up over to where he was, gestured that he sit up. He did just that and after she undid and slipped off her boots, she sat down, laid across the couch and finally motioned to him to rest along her. Though a little unsure at first, he nevertheless complied, though he modified somewhat by laying on his left side so that his head rested on her chest and his back pressed against the back of the couch, all while positioning his ankle in a comfortable enough manner on the pillow and so that the ice pack was still in place.

"Comfy?" Luna asked with a chuckle.

"Uh, yeah...we'll go for that." Lincoln admitted, laughing as well.

He snuggled up against his sister more while she put her left arm behind her head and the other wrapped around him.

"Hey, Luna?"

"What is it?"

"I think you're making the right choice with Sam in my personal opinion."

Heartened to hear those words, Luna smiled before she kissed her brother's forehead and tightened her grip on him with her arm fondly.

"I'm thinking so, too. Thank you for the encouragement, Lincoln."

Again, she sighed contently and thanks to her little brother's words and all that's happened today, Luna could bet that her fortunes with Sam were brighter than they ever were before. Needless to say, she couldn't wait until the coming Friday.

**Author's Note:**

> Ah, that was nice. So yeah, the moral of this story was that Luna and Sam do in fact have a little more in common than they lead themselves to believe. In this case, they both greatly care for Lily, they both have little brothers who they love and have and still do are involved heavily in taking care of and watching out for them. And yeah, you also got a little teaser as to what the next entry in this series will be about, on top of the fact that Simon will finally make his first appearance, too.
> 
> I think that's about it for now. Thank you as usual for your time and we will as I've said many times before do more of this soon. See you then!


End file.
